Metabase (Business Intelligence)
Metabase is an open-source BI tool for building dashboards and running queries — visually for non-technical users, raw SQL for analysts — connected to any database in your sandbox.
Aithroyz deploys Metabase and prompts for initial setup on first visit. Connect it to any database running in the sandbox using internal IPs as the host.
Access
URL:
https://metabase.<env-name>.ops.aithroyz.comFirst visit: A setup wizard runs on first access — create your admin account and connect your first database.
Connecting a database
Any database running in the sandbox is reachable via its internal VM IP. Metabase supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, ClickHouse, and more.
1. Open Admin → Databases
Click the gear icon → Admin → Databases → Add a database.
2. Choose the database type
Select PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, etc. depending on what your sandbox tool uses.
3. Set the internal host
Enter the internal VM IP (e.g. 10.0.0.24) as the Host. Port is the default for the database type (5432, 3306, etc.).
4. Enter credentials
Provide the database username and password. Credentials for sandbox databases are in the Environments Credentials panel.
5. Save and sync
Click Save — Metabase will scan the schema and make all tables available for querying.
ℹ
Use the internal IP (10.0.0.x) rather than the public subdomain URL when connecting databases inside Metabase — it avoids HTTPS overhead and stays entirely within the VPC.
Building a question
A "question" in Metabase is a saved query with a visualization. Use the visual builder for non-SQL exploration.
1. New Question
Click + New → Question → pick your connected database and table.
2. Filter
Add row filters (e.g. status = 'open', created_at > last 7 days) using the Filter button.
3. Aggregate
Add aggregations: Count, Sum, Average, or custom expressions using the Summarize button.
4. Group by
Group results by a column (e.g. severity, assigned_to) to produce a breakdown chart.
5. Visualize and save
Click Visualize to preview the chart, pick the chart type (bar, line, pie, number), then Save to a collection.
Writing SQL
For complex queries, use the native SQL editor. Template variables let you add filter inputs to dashboards.
-- Example: incident summary by day with a date filter
SELECT
DATE(created_at) AS day,
severity,
COUNT(*) AS total
FROM incidents
WHERE created_at >= {{start_date}}
AND created_at < {{end_date}}
GROUP BY 1, 2
ORDER BY 1 DESC, 2;Variables wrapped in {{double braces}} become interactive filter widgets when the query is added to a dashboard.
Scheduled reports
Send dashboard snapshots automatically on a schedule to email or Slack.
1. Open a dashboard
Navigate to the dashboard you want to schedule.
2. Subscriptions
Click the sharing icon → Subscriptions → New subscription.
3. Set the schedule
Choose Daily, Weekly, or Monthly and the delivery time.
4. Set recipients
Add email addresses or a Slack channel (requires Slack configured in Admin → Settings → Slack).
Tips
✓
Use Models (formerly Saved Questions used as data sources) to create curated, pre-filtered views of raw tables. Other analysts can build questions on top of Models without seeing raw schema complexity.
ℹ
Row-level access control is available via Sandboxing (Pro/Enterprise). In Community Edition, use database-level views or roles to restrict what each Metabase user group can query.
✓
Connect n8n to the Metabase API to automate dashboard creation or pull question results into your automation workflows via HTTP Request nodes.